Some years ago, a student of Christian Science took her books into a quiet garden, expecting to spend a long afternoon in study. After she had read for some time, a smiling, snowily-clad nurse and two fair-haired children came and occupied a seat near her. The student was thinking how extra brightly the sun seemed to be shining on this beautiful group, when the little party presently rose, and two decidedly disheveled and apparently disgruntled men took their place.
The student averted her gaze, and turned her back on what seemed an unpleasant picture and continued to read, until she felt compelled to turn once more and look at the seat. Then she was arrested by the thought that the sun had not diverted its rays, had not withheld one particle of its comforting warmth from these later occupants, but was shining on them in all its glory. Realizing what a wonderful object-lesson lay before her, the student glanced many times at that bench during the long summer afternoon. She saw the gay, the gloomy, the uncouth, the beautiful occupy it, but never once did she find the sun withholding one iota of its radiance.
That scene has many times returned to the memory of the one who witnessed it, always as an urgent call, a sharp reminder. In the Glossary in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, are these words (p. 595): "Sun. The symbol of Soul governing man,—of Truth, Life, and Love." Since the constant, holy desire of every student of Christian Science is that he may learn to reflect and express more of divine Love, would it not be wise occasionally to consider the characteristics of the sun, this symbol of Soul, of Truth, Life, and Love?
